Monday, May 7, 2012: Writer Julie Otsuka won this year’s PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her slim, poetic novel The Buddha in the Attic. Here, the California-native tells of a group of young Japanese women brought to San Francisco as picture brides nearly a century ago. This weekend Otsuka was honored at an awards ceremony at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. Then, for his latest album, singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright reflects on his life (as he often does) … this time on the sunny topics of aging, decline and demise. He also brings in his family to help: all of his kids and most of his ex-wives perform on the album. Wainwright joins Bob in the studio to talk about Older Than My Old Man Now.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012: India has awoken from years of relative slumber and now development is advancing at a breakneck pace. After earning degrees in the west, journalist Akash Kapur returned to his homeland for a ringside seat to the action. In the book, India Becoming, Kapur deftly weaves together stories that symbolize the sea changes underway there. He writes: “The forces at work in modern India are part of the great sweep of history. All I can do is watch them, understand them, and maybe, through understanding, learn to accept them.”

Wednesday, May 9, 2012: Bob talks with John Robbins, food activist and author of No Happy Cows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Food Revolution. Robbins, the heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream fortune, is also the author of 1987’s Diet For A New America, which advocated a plant-based diet and warned of the dangers to health, environment and the economy of overconsumption of meat. He blogs for the Huffington Post. Then, in Outlaw Marriages: The Hidden Histories of Fifteen Extraordinary Same-Sex Couples, journalist and cultural historian Rodger Streitmatter discusses the lives of fifteen couples who defied the laws and social order of their day by thriving in same-sex marriages.

Thursday, May 10, 2012: Try to imagine what would happen if Middle Eastern women were able to take control of their religious conflicts. That’s what writer, director and lead actress Nadine Labaki has done in her new film, Where Do We Go Now, and the result is poignant and witty. Labaki will discuss the film, and the new promises and perils facing the Arab world. Then, Nashville singer-songwriter Darrell Scott talks with Bob about his album The Long Ride Home.

Friday, May 11, 2012: Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times joins Bob to discuss the latest political news. Next, Bill Bradley was a US senator for 18 years, a financial and investment adviser, and an Olympic and NBA athlete. He’s now concentrating on the state of the nation after the financial meltdown and amid the intensifying political gridlock. His new book is called We Can All Do Better. Then, in this week’s installment of our ongoing series This I Believe, we hear the essay of Lauren LeBlanc. Americans like to dream big – for our country, and ourselves. Teenagers imagine a future for themselves that includes throngs of adoring fans, and photographers tracking their every movement. LeBlanc was no different from anyone else, in this respect. But life hasn’t worked out that way. Instead, she’s a mother of two who lives in a suburb. Her life is simple. And she couldn’t be happier. LeBlanc says that she may never make an impact outside her community, but that’s ok because inside her home, she is irreplaceable.